Hours after Daeshterrorists
killed 20 hostages in a café in the capital, Dhaka, Bangladesh’s Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed says the militants are “tarnishing” the
image of Islam, stressing that the Takfiri group must stop killing
people in the name of religion.
“Islam is a religion of
peace. Stop killing in the name of the religion,” Hasina said in a
televised address to the nation on Saturday, during which she also
declared two days of mourning.

“Please stop tarnishing
our noble religion… I implore you to come back to the rightful path
and uphold the pride of Islam,” she further said.

Late
on Friday, a group of armed men attacked an upscale café in the
diplomatic area of the capital at around 9:20 p.m. local time (1320
GMT), setting off explosives and taking a number of people hostage,
including foreigners.
Police said eight to nine gunmen armed with assault rifles, grenades, crude bombs and swords were holed up inside.
Several
hours later, police forces managed to enter the place to free the
hostages. Two officers lost their lives in the clashes.Bangladeshi
policemen stand at an intersection of a street leading to an upscale
restaurant after a bloody siege ended in Dhaka, on July 2, 2016. (AFP
photo)On Saturday morning, police declared an
end to the 12-hour siege and said the café was free of gunmen. Six
attackers were killed and another arrested alive during the operation.
Most
of the killed hostages were foreigners, including several Italian and
Japanese nationals. Daesh, in a statement, has claimed responsibility
for the attack.
“Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such
act. They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism,”
Hasina added, vowing to fight terrorist attacks in her country and urged
people to come forward.
In mid-June, Bangladesh police armed
villagers in the country’s western regions with bamboo sticks and
whistles to avoid Daesh attacks on secular intellectuals and members of
the minority faiths.